Responding to Syria's cultural heritage in crisis: A case study

Abstract

Reacting to conflict in the Middle East, an international community of experts has focused on three types of response to the damage of cultural heritage: site documentation projects; public-awareness-raising projects; and emergency training and mitigation projects. Not all of the resulting initiatives have achieved their goals, and there has been some criticism of a failure to significantly address the relevant problems. This paper examines two organisations concerned with Syria: 1) Shirin International and 2) Shirin Australia. It provides an overview of their activities, then considers the challenges and shortcomings of coordinating large-scale transnational responses to heritage in crisis,..